Learn Everything I Know About Making Videos
I am thrilled to announce my next project! It’s my first-ever cohort class and I am using all the exclamation points!!!
It’s called Everything I Know About Making Videos. And it’s exactly what it sounds like – it’s everything I know about writing, research, editing, design, mixing audio, and more. It’s over a decade of knowledge about video essay production distilled down into a single class.
Join me, Kirby Ferguson, a pioneer in video essay production, for a live, interactive six-week journey into the art of video production.
Here’s what makes this class unique.
2 Interactive Zoom Sessions Per Week: Engage in live presentations, discussions, and practical sessions twice weekly.
Direct Mentorship and Feedback: Get personalized critiques from me on your video projects.
Proven Tools and Techniques: Learn my complete workflow and the secrets behind successful video essays.
Special Early Pre-Order Offer: Save $550!
Reserve one of only 12 pre-order spots at the special rate of $750. (Regular price will be $1300.) Get ’em while you can. This course is designed for a very select audience and I might never do this again.
SPECIAL BONUS
Order in the next 48 hours and get my ChatGPT video course FREE ($150 value)
The course will run from September to October 2024. (The exact start date and schedule will be decided with input from enrolled students to ensure flexibility and convenience.)
I’ve answered some anticipated questions below. If there are further questions, contact me!
Reserve your spot now. Again, there are only 12 pre-order slots available. Let’s make something great together!
Answers to anticipated questions
What if the schedule doesn’t fit my schedule?
Alas, the schedule can’t fit every schedule or time zone. However, you can download the sessions afterward and follow along on your own schedule.
What will I produce in this class?
You can pursue whatever goal you want, but I recommend you, y’know, create a video! If you don’t have a project ready to go, I’ll help you make one up. It doesn’t have to be amazing, it’s an exercise.
Do I have to be a video maker?
The class is aimed at people making videos, but lots of what I teach could apply equally well to text, audio, visual, or other projects. I’ll cover writing, knowledge management, research and how to manage small but complex projects.
Is this a video editing course?
This is not a video editing course. There are loads of ways to learn video editing software. There will be some video editing tips and tricks, but you’ll need to learn how to use that software on your own. I won’t be doing comprehensive instruction on any particular software.
Do I have to use a particular video editing software?
No, use whatever you want. I’m experienced with Davinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut and will feature them all.
What else will I learn?
That’s still developing but here’s a bit more!
The complete workflow for making a video essay in the Everything is a Remix style
How to get a powerhouse software suite for 70 bucks (Mac or Windows). No Adobe, no subscriptions!
How to source high-quality clips and media
How to obey copyright… or safely bend the rules
Rip-offs: Immoral or Uninspired?
There are two ways the Everything is a Remix paradigm can backfire. The first is rip-offs.
What does it mean to rip-off?
To rip-off is copying too much from another artist or artists. The copying is not exact and the sources have been transformed enough that it’s not plagiarism.
The real issue is how recognizable the copying is. For instance, you don’t need to copy melodies or lyrics. If you copy the overall feel of another artist’s sound, that’s plenty.
Being a rip-off means you’re too derivative. You’re a clone, a knock-off, even uncreative. Being a rip-off can hurt your reputation in your creative field.
Coldplay were widely considered rip-offs by rock nerds (raises hand). Their early sound especially resembles a combination of U2, Radiohead, and perhaps Oasis.
However, lots of artists have a rip-off phase, especially when they’re young. Coldplay arguably developed a more distinct sound as they matured. Also, plenty of people loved this early music and didn’t care that it resembled other bands.
You might be in your rip-off phase right now. If you’re really into a creator, their voice might creep into yours without you even knowing it. Most people don’t rip off intentionally.
What qualifies as a rip-off is highly ambiguous. The look of the band Black Veil Brides was widely considered a rip-off of KISS. (I think they look more like Motley Crue.) For me, they’re clearly doing their version of 80s metal, but they changed it enough to make it theirs.
Being a rip-off is forgivable. You’re just being immature or perhaps mediocre or outright bad. To rip off is not outright immoral.
How to avoid being a rip-off
Find unusual sources of inspiration
Draw inspiration from outside your field
Merge innumerable influences
Transform your sources extensively
Connect sources that seem unrelated
Which path to take?
If you’re wondering if you missed last week’s post, you did not! Here’s what happened.
I wrote a post announcing pre-orders for a new product. It was all set to go.
But something didn’t feel quite right. It felt rushed – and not in a good way.
This year, I’ve mostly embraced rushing. Rushing is good. Not everything has to be perfect. I make mistakes and learn. It’s mostly typos – the ones in email subject lines are especially irritating for me. (Note: even Grammarly doesn’t catch all errors.)
But those are minor errors. This could have been a more serious mistake. If something is wrong with my pricing or what I promise to deliver, that’s a real problem for the business.
I’m pumping the breaks just a bit on the next launch. The next launch is coming very shortly, but I have to:
Choose which product to launch first
Price it right and ideally, have a couple pricing tiers (which I’ve never done before)
The two possible products are:
The creativity course I mentioned at the start. This would be an on-demand video course, perhaps with a live teaching option.
Everything I Know About Making Videos. This is a niche product. It will be aimed at a tiny audience and have a premium price tag. This would perhaps be a cohort-based course with a limited number of seats. It might be a one-time-only offering.
(Both of these were determined to be viable based on your feedback. Thank you all!)
Nora is better at pragmatic thinking than I am. She’s been helping me figure out pricing and structure, and determine which one makes the most sense to do next.
Both of these are likely to come this year, I just don’t know the order yet.
Gonna leave it at that! Super exciting launch is coming soon! Meanwhile, I’m neck-deep with two commission videos that I hope to wrap in the next few weeks.
Have an awesome week everyone!
Love,
Kirby
What’s next?
I have an on-demand creativity course in the works! It will be far and away the best creativity course in the history of not only this universe but all parallel universes too. I’ve already written thousands of words for it, it’s over a decade in the making, it’s going to be extraordinary.
I have yet to name it and I’d love your input. Please take a second to let me know which name you like – or donate your free ideas. Thanks!
Great artists copy, bad artists steal
"Good artists copy, great artists steal" is an overrated creativity blurb
"Good artists copy, great artists steal" is one of the most popular and provocative quotes about creativity.
The reason... Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs in The Last Interview
In The Lost Interview, Jobs said this:
Picasso had a saying. He said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal."
Picasso definitely did not say that. I'll come back to that.
But first: I never liked this quote. Here's why.
A positive reading
Before I get to why this quote is overrated, let me give it a charitable reading first.
Copying is a tentative and mediocre act.
Stealing is bold. You're committing. You're stealing from someone, admitting it, and y'know what, they stole too.
You're accepting that what you are doing is morally ambiguous. You are taking someone else's work and making it your own.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal" is counterintuitive and polarizing and provocative. It's brash.
And it's enigmatic. Its meaning is unclear, which sets us off on a journey of discovery.
Actually, nah
You certainly can read like it I've described above, but it's a stretch. You have to add a lot of your own meaning to get there.
I think “good artists copy, great artists steal" is all style, no substance. It's splashy and confusing. It sounds interesting but it's meaningless. And worse, it's kinda amoral.
For me, stealing is, at best, ripping someone off. At worst, it’s plagiarism. It's taking too much from one person then saying it's yours. Simple as that.
On the other hand, copying is a perfectly natural thing humans do. We do it all the time and could not survive with it. Copying is mostly good.
You are better served by thinking of imitation as copying rather than stealing. You are copying when you imitate other creations, so long as you use their work in a new way or transform it. Otherwise, you need to say you copied it.
Most importantly, “good artists copy, great artists steal" isn't insightful. There isn't a deep truth at its heart. It's empty.
Other famous quotes about creativity contain small lessons.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
Albert Einstein?
There is wisdom to this. No matter how original someone seems, they are copying from others.
If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.
Steven Wright?
Again, stealing is taking too much from a single source. When you draw from many sources, you are learning the language of a domain and your work likely won’t resemble any particular person that much.
So who said it?
Picasso never said, “good artists copy, great artists steal." So who did?
Here's some wisdom, folks: beware of pithy quotes you find on the internet. Very often, they were not said by anyone in particular.
Matter of fact, the other two creativity quotes above were not said by Einstein or Wright. Like "good artists copy, great artists steal," they have murky origins.
Who said, "good artists copy, great artists steal"? Far as I can tell. Steve Jobs did. He transformed a line he'd heard somewhere and misattributed it. It seems like something Picasso would say.
For me, "good artists copy, great artists steal" is not insightful. But you know what is? The entirety of what Jobs response. Here's the full quote.
Ultimately, it comes down to taste. It comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done, and then try to bring those things into what you are doing. Picasso had a saying. He said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. And I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn’t been for computer science, these people would have all been doing amazing things in life in other fields. And they brought with them, we all bought to this effort, a very liberal arts air, a very liberal arts attitude that we wanted to pull in the best that we saw in these other fields into this field. And I don’t think you get that if you’re very narrow.**
I don't know when I heard Jobs say this, but it very well could be one of the inspirations for Everything is a Remix. Jobs was not just a great innovator, he was a great illuminator of creativity.
Copy Transform Combine
Copy Transform Transform is the heart of Everything is a Remix. Of everything I’ve done, I am most proud of this, even more so than the Everything is a Remix concept itself. I wish I had this framework when I was a teenager.
I struggled with originality for many years. I idolized artists, especially musicians, and fully believed in innate talent. Some people had it, like Radiohead or Lucinda Williams or Quentin Tarantino (the director). Some people didn’t, like Creed or Bush or Quentin Tarantino (the actor).
I had a bit of talent and assumed that was my lot. I could raise my game some, but not a lot because I wasn’t naturally gifted.
As I got older I realized work and interest mattered far more than talent. Deliberate practice maintained over many years could lift you from low talent to high talent.
But how? Where do you direct your energy during these formative years?
The formula I eventually discovered is simple, powerful, and universal to art, innovation, and scientific discovery.
Copy
We all start with this simple activity as small children: copy. Monkey see, monkey do. It begins with copying the words we hear and the patterns we see. Copying is the foundation of all knowledge and it’s the foundation of creativity.
Transform
As we copy, we transform without even meaning to. We can’t copy perfectly, so we do the best we can and inadvertently generate a style. But quite soon, we transform intentionally. We twist our inspiration to make it more like what we envision.
Combine
Combine is the most powerful element of this framework. We merge our sources into a new thing. This is where the biggest creative leaps are made, especially when we connect seemingly unrelated things.
In practice, Copy Transform Combine happens hundreds or even thousands of times when we create something new.
Everybody who creates copies, transforms, and combines. Your source material might be media, like movies, books, and music, or it might be your life, like conversations, experiences, or even imagined experiences.
To learn more about Copy Transform Combine watch Part 3 of Everything is a Remix, which breaks down the Fortnite and the battle royale genre.
You can find more examples in the original version of the series, which focuses on Apple and the development of the original Macintosh.
I wasted years of my youth due to creative aimlessness. Copy Transform Combine would have given me the direction I needed. I entirely believe my creative journey would have been accelerated by years.
I’ve now heard hundreds of stories about how Copy Transform Combine changed people’s lives, and this, above all, is why I’m so proud of it. I hope it can change yours.
Operation 11th Hour Q1 Results
Ladies and gentlemen, Q1 of Operation 11th Hour is complete! What happened?
The Results
Here’s how Operation 11th Hour works. In 2024, I need to establish a viable business. Every quarter I evaluate results and assign a pass or fail grade. A pass grade means I live to fight another quarter. A fail grade means game over, time to do something else.
TLDR: January worked; February and March were saved by freelance work
January was my best month of the quarter. The ChatGPT course had a good launch. I got 65% of what would have been a great month. All in all, a decent start.
Course sales dropped after January but have been a stable and substantial source of revenue since. When selling online, a common fate is sales dropping to literally zero after launch. It’s a small but significant win that I’m avoiding that.
Freelance work saved me for the rest of the quarter. Without it, I could be sunk already. (The comparison is a bit tricky, though, because I also had much less time to work on the business.)
The Toughest Challenge
This quarter was like running a marathon with a sprained ankle.
Family illness was unbelievable. Some of this was my own illness, but the biggest challenge was extra caretaking from missed school days and sleepless nights with Little Kirby.
Before pre-school, for a year and a half, Little Kirby was sick twice. Since starting pre-school, he’s been sick perhaps 8 times. I’ve honestly lost track. Every other week it’s something new. After a recent cold, he went back to school for one day and immediately caught a long-lasting stomach virus.
The stomach bugs are extra awful for us parents because of, let’s just say, messes. Thumbs down. Zero stars.
Nora and I catch most, but not all, of the bugs Kirby brings into the house. I was some version of sick for all but one of the shoots I did for the ChatGPT course. As I write this, I’m at home with Little K as he recovers from the latest stomach bug.
What worked, what didn’t
I tried a variety of experiments this quarter. Some worked, most didn’t.
These worked.
Good course launch
Good growth with the Everything is a Remix mailing list
Good success with targeted email campaigns
The free module of the AI course worked
The major thing that didn’t work was writing. I tried cranking out lots of writing. All of this was outperformed by a single video I posted on YouTube, which didn’t even do that well views-wise. Video content will be a priority in Q2.
Q1 Grade: Pass
For Quarter 1 of Operation 11th Hour I scored a pass.
BUT!
I’m at the low end of where I need to be. I can’t stay here. I need to make more revenue next quarter.
An extra challenge: I need to achieve this while still doing freelance work because that work is still ongoing.
I live to fight another quarter! I couldn’t have done it without your support. Sincerely, thank you to every one of you.
What’s next? An exciting new thing! I’ll start telling you about it next week.
Love,
k
P.S. If you’d like to support this endeavor, go buy something! If you’re interested in consultation or coaching about AI or creative work, head to the contact page and drop me a line.
Why is Liu Cixin original?
Liu Cixin in The Wall Street Journal
Some people just are original. They’ve got it.
Maybe it’s because of their past experiences. Maybe they’re just wired that way. Regardless, they somehow have a more original voice than the rest of us.
Liu Cixin, for instance, has it.
Cixin is a science fiction author best known for The Three-Body Problem trilogy, which is being adapted into a Netflix series.
In the prologue to The Three-Body Problem, Cixin writes about how a blend of random experiences coalesced to define his imagination.
And so, satellite, hunger, stars, kerosene lamps, the Milky Way, the Cultural Revolution’s factional civil wars, a light-year, the flood … these seemingly unconnected things melded together and formed the early part of my life, and also molded the science fiction I write today.
Part of why he’s original is luck. He didn’t choose these experiences, they just happened.
But even if you didn’t win the originality lottery, you can always be more original. And it’s not even that hard.
Draw major inspiration from outside your field
Cixin Liu is really a scientist and engineer who writes fiction. His dominant interest is science, which he translates into fiction.
Sure, plenty of sci-fi authors are the same, but there’s an infinity of possible ways to do this.
When you draw inspiration from other fields, you almost can’t help but be original because you have to translate those concepts in order to merge them into your medium. You have to invent.
If you’re a developer, don’t let software dominate your interests. If you’re a filmmaker, don’t let film dominate. If you write science fiction, don’t let science fiction dominate.
Stay Out of the Herd
The key to originality is simple: stay out of the herd. Or at least, venture out of the herd regularly.
Originality, like creativity itself, is about finding unusual connections and sources. If you get your media through the major algorithms and popular content, you’ll just create versions of that stuff – and second-rate versions at that.
Matter of fact, the more useless a subject seems, the more exciting the discoveries can be. Who would think that kerosene lamps would have much to do with writing hard science fiction? For Cixin, that experience wove into his imagination.
The simplest lesson of all
Here’s the simplest lesson of all we can draw from not just Cixin but all authors: read books.
Most people don’t read books anymore. Books improve your life in a wide variety of ways. They improve focus and attention. Fiction raises your sense of empathy. There is no greater fuel for the imagination than books.
Go read a book. If you haven’t yet, start with The Three-Body Problem and thank me later.
"The Years Pass Like Months." Why Does Time Speed Up?
When I was in my mid-twenties, I worked as a low-level graphic designer and technician (Mac nerd) at a printing plant in a tiny town in Nova Scotia, Canada. I made hundreds of newspaper ads for a couple of years, then graduated to pizza flyers and fishing equipment catalogs.
Places like this pretty much don’t exist now. Guys would smoke cigarettes while standing beside literal tons of highly flammable newsprint. Some folks were clearly alcoholics and that was ignored so long it didn’t get out of hand.
The guy who serviced the vending machines was a fun character. He had friends at the plant and dropped in during his breaks. He was a huge, powerful, big-bearded man with a potbelly that stretched thin the mid-section of his t-shirt.
I would guess now that he was probably 60-ish – or maybe 50-ish with a lotta miles on him.
He was a light-hearted guy who loved small talk and jokes. But one day he was earnest and I’ve remembered what he said ever since.
“Time speeds up when you’re older. It’s all so fast now. The years… they pass like months.”
I’d never heard of such a thing. Time was… time, right? You get older and older faster and faster? It gave me an existential chill. Especially because I instantly knew he was right.
As a kid, every day was a long and winding adventure. A year was an infinity.
By the time I’d heard this guy’s insight, my thirtieth year was approaching and I was noticing how quickly the odometer was spinning. As the decades have passed since it’s just gotten faster.
Time accelerates as we age. Days blend together. Did we go to the play gym yesterday or the day before? A week begins then it’s over. You get used to being in your 40s, then you’re in your 50s.
Each year of your life passes a bit more quickly than the one before.
I’d never considered that I could do anything about this.
I’ve been listening to Moshe Bar’s fantastic book Mindwandering and he thinks you actually can do something about it.
Why do the years pass more quickly as we get older?
Bar thinks one of the reasons time speeds up is because we experience less and less novelty. We’ve seen so much that we engage less and less with the real world and spend more and more time in our mind’s perception of the world. We increasingly look at our mental map, not the territory around us.
I’ll also add: we vaporize thousands of hours on phones, TV, and video games. This is huge.
Bar believes when you spend less time lost in your interior monologue, time slows down.
One way to do this is through mindfulness meditation. (If you’re curious, just search. There are loads of resources out there.)
But it’s even simpler than that. We all know how to quiet our minds. Stop talking to yourself.
When you notice your mind jabbering away about nonsense, let it go. Begin to recognize when your mind is churning and let the thoughts pass. Don’t say anything in your head.
Your mind will always churn, that’s what it’s supposed to do. It’s trying to make meaning and plot your future. You can only reign it in.
We all have to work, parent, study, caretake, et cetera. Sometimes you need to talk in your head while doing these things. But when you don’t have to, don’t.
How do you slow down time?
The answer is simple: think less, experience more.
This can feel boring. Accept the initial discomfort.
Try this out this week. Quiet your mind. Slow it down. It isn’t easy to do, but it is simple to work at and improve.
Oh, and more important than slowing time down: it feels better. It’s a better life.
Love,
K
The Spring Reset
It’s springtime, folks! And for those of you in the southern hemisphere, happy fall! Cold and decay! Hooray!!!
Regardless of your GPS coordinates, it’s a new season and it’s the perfect time to reset. If you’re off-track, let’s get on track. If you’re on track, let’s level up.
Remember, this can be about anything, not just work or creative projects. If you need to do better with your health or your family or relationship or social life or community or even hobby, a new season is a great opportunity to create change.
The Good
Here’s where I’m at. This is all about business because that’s my focus this year.
I’ve done decently thus far this year – or as I’ve said before, slightly good. Here are my wins, some big, some small.
I started the year with a bang and delivered a two-hour-plus video course about ChatGPT, on time, on Christmas Day. I executed a good launch. The course has been well-received and some well-known people took it.
I ventured into areas outside my wheelhouse, like Google Ads and targeted emails, and scored some small wins.
The Everything is a Remix newsletter was a priority and generated good growth.
I’ve met loads of amazing people.
After course income started to decline, I was able to quickly secure freelance work.
Consistency has long been a weakness of mine, but I’ve put out two articles every week all year.
I’m writing the most and the most easily I have in my life.
The less-good and what I’m going to do about it
Here are the struggles I’ve had and how I’ll address them.
Overall, after a strong start, momentum has dipped. Some of this is because I’m working on other projects, but that’s not the only cause.
Course sales dropped more than I would like. I need to refocus on sales and marketing and establish consistency.
My social media efforts have not delivered much and I’m occasionally making myself cringe with stuff I’m posting. (To be clear, selling stuff requires enduring some cringe.) I’m mostly shelving social for now and just posting updates about new stuff.
I’m gonna launch something new! This will be something I’m very excited about and I hope you will be too. It’ll be my biggest and best product yet.
But the biggest change I’m going to make is this.
Video returns to the center of my life
I’ve written a lot this quarter, more than I ever have before. I’ve really developed that muscle. But there are two problems.
It hasn’t amounted to much.
I don’t think I’m especially great at it.
Writing feels partial to me, like a prototype. With some exceptions, I often feel like something is missing from what I write.
Now, I don’t love every video I’ve made. But I love plenty of them and I like the rest. It’s easy for me to make stuff I like in video form.
I can’t escape video. I’m a lifer.
This might sound like an obvious conclusion, because, y’know, I’m a filmmaker. But this is a major change in my work.
The way I made videos before was insanely labor-intensive. Everything is a Remix, This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, all the video-essay style stuff – each of those videos took months and there was no conceivable way to make them faster. They weren’t working well enough to justify that kind of investment. I had to let that kind of work go and try something more efficient, writing. Writing has gotten faster and easier for me and now I think I can adapt that material into easier-to-produce videos.
And I now have a business model. Before I only had videos. Video is possible again if I can make it in a reasonable amount of time and if it can serve the business.
So I’m trying that next! I’ve already launched a new video, which you can see below. (It’s a version of the ChatGPT course content.)
I’m aiming to publish a new video every two weeks, but the quantity-quality balance is not settled.
So that’s my major course correction. All of you will, of course, be the first to see how this goes.
Hemingway Was Right (and ChatGPT Can Help)
NEW VIDEO
Hemingway Was Right (and ChatGPT Can Help)
Watch 25 minutes of my ChatGPT course FOR FREE
TRANSCRIPT
Hi everybody and welcome back to the wonderful world of Everything is a Remix. I'm gonna try some new things. I'm experimenting. I don't know what I'm doing or where this is going.
I know I told some of you I'm retiring from video, I stopped the kinds of videos I was making. It's a new game for me, this is a new chapter. I'm going to be doing things in a way.
I want to tell you about an exciting new project I have and share one of the best parts of it right here.
I have a new course about ChatGPT and AI. You can watch the entire first module, which is 7 videos, over 25 minutes of content, for FREE. There's a link in the description.
AI is the next frontier in creativity. And the best tool there is... is ChatGPT.
What for? For writing and for writing content.
ChatGPT helps you deal with this.
The blank page. The void. The abyss. That relentless blinking cursor.
You can get spooked here. When you're starting from nothing, it's easy to get overwhelmed with choices or overthink or procrastinate.
Remember what I'm about to say. Make a note. Screencap.
Rewriting is easier than writing. I'll say it again: rewriting is easier than writing.
ChatGPT gives you something to work with. It's not good necessarily, it's just... something. It's a start.
Some of you might be thinking: doesn't your first draft need to be kinda like... good?
No no no. No, it really doesn't. Common misconception.
Don't believe me?
How about the author Jane Smiley? She won the Pulitzer Prize. She said.
"Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist."
How about Anne Lamott? She wrote a famous book about writing called Bird by Bird.
"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere."
Or most famously, Earnest Hemingway might have said "The first draft of anything is s--t."
We're not totally quite sure he said exactly that.
The first draft is often bad. Just like the first demo of a song is bad or the alpha version of your software is bad or the first prototype of your product is bad.
Thinking that the first draft has to be good will paralyze you. It'll stop you from starting.
ChatGPT can get you that crappy first draft, it can give you the raw material. Then you have to rewrite it pretty much completely. There won't be much ChatGPT left in it when you're done.
Sound like a lot of work? It's way less work than writing your own first draft and then making that better.
I'll say it again, rewriting is easier than writing.
When there is something there on the page, you can improve it and fix it.
And sure, sometimes ChatGPT will strike out. No matter what you do, its first draft will be a dud, you won't be able to use it. Was that a waste of time?
No, you still come out ahead. Because seeing what you don't want can shed light on what you do want. It's helped you narrow down the possibilities.
In sports, there's the expression "You're either winning or you're learning." Same applies here. Even when you lose with an attempt at a first draft, you learn, and you get closer to a solution.
Saltburn: An Anti-Lesson in Originality
Still image from Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn
Emerald Fennell’s latest film Saltburn is highly polarizing. That’s certainly a quality of good art. Good art is provocative and strikes a nerve. In that regard, Saltburn is good art.
But it’s not actually good art.
There are many reasons for this, like goofy plotting, cardboard characters, and its overall trashy psychological thriller quality.
But this is the biggest reason: Saltburn lacks originality.
Saltburn feels too familiar because it’s overflowing with recognizable references to popular movies and social media fodder.
The biggest similarity is to 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, a well-known, big-budget Hollywood film with an A-list cast.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Broey Deschanel goes into the issue in-depth in this video essay.
This familiarity increases Saltburn’s popular appeal and helps it go down easy, but it’s a double-edged sword. We also crave originality, things that feel new.
The art that resonates the most deeply with us comes with a strong dose of originality. Originality forges a deeper connection with us and creates work that can endure.
If Saltburn were more original, it could have been good art.
So how do you be more original?
How to Be Original
Your originality lies in how you combine existing influences and add your distinctive perspective.
Here’s the key: be eclectic.
Having diverse and unusual interests will help you discover unusual material to incorporate into your work and develop a unique viewpoint.
How do you be eclectic?
Think of your imagination as having two realms:
1) The Professional or Avocation Realm
2) The Hobby Realm
The professional realm is your primary work – you’re a designer, developer, entrepreneur, filmmaker, et cetera. This is your domain and you’ll need to have plenty of interest here. You can find interesting and unusual sources here, but you can’t follow them too closely without becoming derivative.
The hobby realm is where you get eclectic. Pursue fascinating and weird subjects that have nothing at all to do with your domain. It’s this second realm that will provide you with unique connections and inspiration. Have fun, follow your heart, and wander wherever you desire. This isn’t work, it’s play.
The issue with Saltburn is this: Fennell is a filmmaker and her main source of inspiration is films. And not unusual films, but popular films that we’ve all seen.
Her hobby interest is probably social media, which, again, is stuff most people have already seen.
If Fennell’s hobby interest was, say, the literature of the nineties, that could have resulted in Saltburn feeling more original, and thus more fresh and vital.
See how simple that is? Rather than scrolling social media as a hobby, be a book buff.
There’s a lot more to unpack here. Next week, I’ll share much more about how to be original. And it’s simpler than it seems.
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